Syria: Opposition Abuses During Ground Offensive

Rebels Endanger, Kill Civilians; Damage Churches

Opposition fighters came into Sadad claiming they
would not harm civilians, but they did just that.There is no excuse for
indiscriminate or targeted attacks against civilians or civilian sites.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director

(New York) – Opposition fighters in Syria apparently executed civilians and others in
their custody during an offensive in the Christian village of Sadad from October
21 to 28, 2013. Other civilians were also killed unlawfully by opposition sniper
fire. Civilians killed by opposition shelling, as fighting between government
and opposition forces in the village continued, may have been killed
unlawfully.

During the offensive against government forces in
Sadad, 100 kilometers northeast of Damascus, rebel fighters refused to allow
residents of the village to leave their homes in areas with active fighting,
residents told Human Rights Watch. In at least one case, fighters allegedly used
a resident as a human shield. Residents also said that opposition fighters also
stole personal items, and vandalized, stole, and damaged property in at least
three churches of local and historical significance.

“Opposition fighters came into Sadad claiming they would not harm civilians,
but they did just that,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human
Rights Watch. “There is no excuse for indiscriminate or targeted attacks against
civilians or civilian sites.”Opposition fighters should never execute or directly target civilians or
anyone in their custody or target civilian sites, including religious sites,
Human Rights Watch said. They should take precautions to protect civilians from
harm during operations in residential areas including by easing the way for
residents to leave the area if they wish to. They should not subject civilians
to additional risk by using them as human shields.

The interior of a bloodstained well in Sadad, Syria, where village residents discovered the bodies of six of their neighbors after opposition fighters retreated on October 28. The victims’ hands were tied, they wore blindfolds, and their bodies bore gunshot wounds, a witness said.

Opposition groups referred to the Sadad operation as part of the “Battle of God’s Doors Do Not Shut” on social media
sites, where several groups also announced their participation in the operation
and released footage apparently showing their members fighting in Sadad. The
groups involved in the operation include al-Maghaweer of the Dera’ al-Islam battalion of
the Free Syrian Army (FSA),Ahel al-Athar battalion of the FSA, Liwa al-Huq, Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Khadra’ battalion, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS). According
to a post by al-Khadra’ battalion on Twitter, al-Khadra’’s
leader commanded al-Khadra’, ISIS, and Jabhat al-Nusra forces during the
operation. Abu Ayham is the field commander of Dera’ al-Islam.In most cases, Human Rights Watch has not been able to establish which of the
participating opposition groups were responsible for the abuses that Human
Rights Watch documented. One resident told Human Rights Watch that fighters who
identified themselves as Jabhat al-Nusra used him as a human shield, and Human
Rights Watch observed graffiti damaging a church in Sadad apparently left by
Liwa al-Huq, Jabhat al-Nusra, and Liwa al-Tawhid.

Human Rights Watch visited Sadad during an investigative mission to Syria
with permission from the Syrian government and interviewed 10 residents and the
mayor, Sleiman Khalil. Human Rights Watch also later spoke to three residents by
phone. Human Rights Watch interviewed each resident separately in various
locations in the village. The mayor was interviewed in the municipal offices.
Except for the mayor himself during his own interview, no Syrian government
officials were present during the interviews. The names of those interviewed
have been changed for their safety.

Residents of Sadad said that armed opposition fighters entered their ancient
village of 12,000 people on the morning of October 21, and battled government
forces, who sent reinforcements to the village over the course of the next week.
The village, which borders Qalamoon to the south, Mheen to the east, Hissya to
the west, and an-Na`amiyah to the north, is one of the many residential areas affected by the ongoing fighting between
government and opposition forces in the “Battle of God’s Doors Do Not Shut.”

Residents of Sadad said that over the week that opposition fighters were in
the village, fighters mostly did not target or abuse residents, but that in some
instances, they endangered and killed civilians and people in their custody and
intentionally damaged and looted civilian sites, including churches. Rebel
fighters forced residents to stay in areas with active fighting, allegedly used
at least one resident as a human shield, and apparently executed residents and
killed others with sniper fire. As opposition forces battled government forces
in the village some residents were also killed by opposition shelling which may
have been indiscriminate.

Human Rights Watch identified the names of 46 people from Sadad killed in the
village during the weeklong operation. Forty-one of the dead were civilians,
residents told Human Rights Watch, including 14 women and two children. Three of
the dead were police officers, one a soldier in the reserves who was not
currently serving, and another an off-duty soldier on home leave from his
service, residents said. If correct, only the soldier on home leave and police -
if participating in counterinsurgency operations- would have been combatants. In
22 of the 46 cases, Human Rights Watch spoke to residents who described how the
other residents were killed. In the remaining cases, Human Rights Watch received
the names of the dead from local church officials who coordinated the burials.
Human Rights Watch received reports that Syrian government and opposition
fighters also died in the course of fighting, but has not confirmed the number
of those killed.

Graffiti mars the renowned frescoes of Mar Sarkis Church in Sadad, Syria, after opposition fighters occupied the church in October 2013. The graffiti reads, “No banner but the banner of Islam. Down with Bashar. Jabhat al-Nusra, Liwa al-Tawhid. “

Human Rights Watch urges the UN Security Council to refer the situation in
Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC). An ICC referral would be a
crucial first step toward achieving justice for victims of atrocities by all
sides in Syria’s armed conflict and would send a strong message that serious
crimes will not be tolerated. Over the last two and a half years Human Rights
Watch has extensively documented abuses by government and pro-government forces
during ground operations including executions, indiscriminate shelling and sniper attacks, and
the use of human shields. Human Rights Watch has also
documented indiscriminate shelling, and executions and kidnapping by opposition forces
during ground operations.

Currently, 64 countries, including six Security Council members, have
expressed support for an ICC referral. Russia has described the effort to seek a
referral as “ill-timed and counterproductive.” Security Council members such as
the United States that have not yet supported an ICC referral should publicly do
so, and should take all available steps to encourage Russia to drop its
opposition, Human Rights Watch said.

“An ICC referral would strip all sides of their sense of impunity and make
clear that abuses could land them behind bars in The Hague,” Whitson said. “It’s
long past time for the Security Council to overcome the current stalemate on
justice for the serious ongoing crimes in Syria.”For detailed accounts of the killings and other abuses, please see
below.

The Villagers’ AccountsIn interviews in Sadad on November 11, five residents and the mayor told
Human Rights Watch that opposition fighters entered the village on October 21 at
approximately 6:15 a.m. The mayor said that the fighters approached from the
south, north, and east, and gained access after they set off two nearly
simultaneous explosions at army checkpoints to the east and west, killing a
number of government soldiers. In announcements on social media sites, some
opposition groups said that the twin bomb attacks were suicide operations.

The mayor said that approximately 2,000 armed fighters, predominately
Syrians, but also some foreigners from Libya, Chechnya, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar,
entered the village on its three main roads in about 50 pickup trucks. They took
control of the local police station and a political security facility, two
government security buildings in the area.

Rebel fighters fanned out throughout the village, and, the mayor said,
announced over a bullhorn that they meant the residents no harm. Soon Syrian
army soldiers came from neighboring areas and entered Sadad to fight them.
Throughout the following week, the rebels engaged government forces in battles
from their positions in the village. On October 28, the rebels retreated from
the village.

Apparent ExecutionsThe mayor told Human Rights Watch that in the initial assault on the village,
opposition fighters executed three police officers and one resident who was a
reserve soldier, all of them unarmed and in the custody of opposition fighters.
The mayor told Human Rights Watch that they were seized at approximately 6:30
a.m. on October 21 on their way from the municipal building, where they had met
the mayor, to the police station. He said that he saw the officers get into the
clearly marked municipal vehicle unarmed on their way to the police station.

A video Dera’ al-Islam published on October 25 on
its YouTube channel shows opposition fighters in Sadad with five dead bodies in
civilian clothes bearing bullet wounds – people the videographer calls “the dogs
of Bashar.” The mayor identified four of them as the officers who were killed.
The four bodies appear in the video lying in a row.

The position of their bodies appears to indicate that they were lined up and
shot in the chest from approximately the same distance, and that the velocity of
the shots had spun some of them around. The absence of blood splattered on the
ground, except for immediately around the bodies, or any marks in the dirt, also
suggests that the bodies had not been dragged or moved, but rather that the men
were placed in a line and then shot. Further investigation is required to
establish the exact circumstances of their deaths. Parties to a conflict who
execute anyone, combatants or civilians, in their formal or effective custody,
are guilty of war crimes, Human Rights Watch said.

The mayor and several residents also told Human Rights Watch that days after
government forces pushed opposition fighters out of the village, residents
followed a putrid odor to locate – and, with the help of the civil defense
forces, retrieve – six corpses that someone had apparently thrown
into a well. They identified the bodies as civilian residents from one family:
Najla Mtanes al-Sheikh, 45; Fadi Sarkis Drouj, 16, and Ranim Sarkis Drouj, 18, Najla’s sons; Mtanes
Sleiman al-Sheikh, Najla’s elderly father; Habbsa Nassif al-Sheikh, 75; and Maryam Nassif al-Sheikh, 90. The age of the three
elderly residents and the presence of one child killed with his brother and
mother, support the residents’ claim that these family members were civilians. A
neighbor who was present when the bodies were retrieved said the victims were
blindfolded with their hands tied and had been shot in the head.

The neighbor told Human Rights Watch that before the rebels withdrew, he had
been helping people leave the village. On October 24, he had called Najla, whose
family was among the last to remain in a neighborhood under opposition control,
to try to arrange her escape. He said she told him it would be impossible for
her to leave because she had three elderly relatives with her. The next morning,
when the neighbor called her again, there was no answer.

Later that day, Syrian government soldiers regained control of the central
part of the village, where Najla and her family lived. The neighbor said he
asked soldiers to check on Najla and her family, but the soldiers told him they
saw no sign of them. The neighbor told Human Rights Watch that the well where
the bodies were later found was four houses and about 25 meters away from where
Najla and her family had lived.

Human Rights Watch visited the well and observed bloodstains on its inner and
outer walls and what appeared to be two bullet markings on the interior wall of
the well but did not locate any witnesses to the killings. Further investigation
is required to establish who killed the family.

Endangering Civilians: Restrictions on MovementThe mayor of Sadad told Human Rights Watch that as soon as opposition
fighters entered the village, he recognized that some of them were from
neighboring villages. He said he began reaching out to local and international
humanitarian agencies and community leaders, including Christian and Sunni
Muslim religious leaders from neighboring areas, to try to negotiate a ceasefire
to enable civilians to flee. A local Christian religious leader who participated
in the negotiations also told Human Rights Watch attempts were made to negotiate
a ceasefire.But residents told Human Rights Watch that opposition fighters in some
instances had stopped them from leaving their homes, with devastating
consequences.

Antonious, who lives on the main road on the western side of Sadad, told
Human Rights Watch that on the first day of the opposition offensive, he and his
family stayed inside their home, listening to calls of “Allah Akbar” outside.
The next day, he tried to convince the rebel fighters to allow him and his
relatives to move to a safer area, but they refused, he said. Antonious said
that on the third day, out of the sight of opposition fighters, he and his
relatives used a ladder to climb over a small wall behind the house to go to his
uncle’s house, which seemed safer because it was off the main road. But around 3
or 3:30 p.m., he said, an enormous explosion sounded and the uncle’s entire
house collapsed. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine the cause of the
explosion or whether it was due to an attack by opposition or government
forces.I was in the garden, so I was okay, but my mom, brother, dad, and my uncle’s
wife were all killed. My uncle was also in the garden … Both the houses, ours
and theirs, were gone … After that, they let us go to a house [in a safer area]
with other neighbors and there we stayed in the basement.

Jamil, who also lives with his family on the western side of Sadad, told
Human Rights Watch that on October 21, opposition fighters surrounded and
entered his neighborhood, positioned their rocket launcher 2 to 3 meters in
front of his home, and told him that he and his family could not go anywhere
because of ongoing fighting. On October 25, he said, his house caught fire after
government forces shelled the opposition military position in front of his
house. He and his relatives managed to escape, but the house was destroyed.
After the attack, he said, opposition fighters transported his family and
several of their neighbors to a safer area.‘Ala, who lives on the
eastern side of Sadad, told Human Rights Watch that opposition fighters evicted
his family from their home to occupy it. He said that enabled 16 family members
to escape fighting, while the fighters forced their neighbors to stay
put.Under the laws of war, parties to a conflict must take all feasible
precautions during military operations to minimize loss of civilian life and
must, to the extent feasible, remove civilians under their control from areas
where they are deploying their military forces.

Endangering Civilians: Alleged Use of a Human ShieldIn at least one instance, opposition fighters allegedly seized a man from his
house, apparently to use him as a human shield as they passed within range of a
government sniper. The man, Fouad, lives with his wife and three young children
near Mar Elias Church on Sadad’s main road. He said that on October 26, three
fighters who identified themselves as members of Jabhat al-Nusra came into his
house and demanded his money, cell phone, and ID card.His children were
terrified, Fouad said. The fighters told everyone else to be quiet, and
interrogated Fouad about his phone calls, apparently trying to assess whether he
was contacting people to help the government. Fouad said one fighter redialed
the last phone number Fouad had called – his sister – and told him not to say a
word while the fighter determined who she was. Fouad said that as his mother,
niece, wife, and three children looked on, the men told him to lie down and then
hit him with their rifle butts. One of them said, “We kill Nasara [Christians],”
Fouad said.

Later, Fouad said: “Two of them took me with them to walk down the street,
walking on either side of me until we passed the [government] sniper, so he
wouldn’t shoot. And then they left me. When we were walking, the sniper didn’t
shoot at us.”Opposition fighters should not endanger civilians by restricting the ability
to flee or by using them as human shields, Human Rights Watch said.

The use of human shields – using the presence of civilians to prevent the
targeting of military objectives – is prohibited under international
humanitarian law. Combatants who deliberately use civilians as human shields to
deter attacks on their forces are responsible for war
crimes.

Civilian Deaths from Sniper Shots, ShellingResidents told Human Rights Watch that rebel sniper fire and indiscriminate
shelling killed their family members and neighbors.‘Ala told Human
Rights Watch that on October 25 or 26, a sniper in the opposition-controlled
eastern section of Sadad killed his cousin, Jamil Asfour, 35, his uncle’s wife,
Shamsa al-Boufi, 65, and her mother, Fouda al-Boufi, in her 80s, as they tried
to flee to a safer part of the village. He said that after Syrian government
soldiers pushed the rebel fighters back, soldiers found the bodies with gunshot
wounds in the eastern section of the village. A second relative who lives in the
eastern section also told Human Rights Watch that these three family members had
been killed by a sniper positioned there.

Another resident, Sarah, told
Human Rights Watch that five people, including her son, were delivering food,
unarmed, to besieged neighbors in the northern part of Sadad on October 25 when
shelling killed three of the five, including her son. One of the survivors, who
was injured, told her that the mortar shell that killed her son came from an
opposition position, from which fighters were striking toward a
government-controlled area in the north of the village. There were no government
positions in their neighborhood, however.Human Rights Watch spoke to one
of the men injured in the strike, whose father had died in the attack. He said
that on October 25, government soldiers passed through his neighborhood to
search for fighters and reassure residents. After government forces were no
longer in the area, at around 2:15 p.m., three shells landed in his
neighborhood, one right after the other. He said that the third strike killed
the three people delivering food, and injured him and a fifth person, and that
after the attack, government soldiers came to the neighborhood and transported
the dead and wounded to nearby hospitals. He gave Human Rights Watch the names
of the dead and injured.The absence of military targets in the area hit
by shells fired by opposition forces reflects that their method of attack or the
attacks themselves may have been indiscriminate, Human Rights Watch said.
Combatants should only target military objects and should take precautions to
not harm civilians.Theft and Destruction of Property, Including
at Religious SitesFour Sadad residents told Human Rights Watch
that fighters broke into their homes or cars and stole their property. Residents
also described damage to several of the churches in Sadad. Human Rights Watch
visited three churches that residents said were among the worst damaged.Two residents said they saw opposition fighters enter Mar Theodore Church on
October 25. When government forces retook the village, the residents said, items
were missing from the church and it had damage that appeared intentional.

When Human Rights Watch visited the church on November 11, residents had
already cleaned up much of the damage they described. Human Rights Watch
observed a broken candelabra, and a broken door on a locked cabinet behind the
church altar, where residents said a sound system had been stolen, leaving wires
dangling. Human Rights Watch also saw two crowns intended to be worn by priests
of the church that appeared to be intentionally flattened and bent in half. The
residents also said that opposition fighters had stolen copper candlesticks and
chalices, along with religious relics. Shelling – whose origin was unclear –
also damaged the church roof, leaving the wooden ceiling visibly
damaged.

In Mar Sarkis Church, which residents said is hundreds of years
old, Human Rights Watch observed graffiti tags on the interior walls, some on
the edges of the church’s rare and renowned frescos. One tag read, “Saqar the
Libyan passed through here freedom for Mheen [a nearby village],” a town where
rebels were fighting the government. Others said, “Liwa al-Huq,” “Jabhat
al-Nusra,” and “Liwa al-Tawhid,” names of opposition groups, some of which
announced their participation in the battle in Sadad. The glass on the doors to
the church was shattered near the knobs, suggesting a forced entry.

In
Mar Mikhael Church, Human Rights Watch observed bullet holes in the ceiling and
walls, and in several religious paintings, in patterns suggesting vandalism
rather than firefights. A resident told Human Rights Watch that he saw rebel
fighters occupy the church, and showed Human Rights Watch some food and personal
items he said they left behind. Human Rights Watch observed destroyed religious
icons, pews with smashed wooden legs, seats, and backs, and the church’s broken
and empty collection box. A resident told Human Rights Watch that religious
relics were also missing.

Under international humanitarian law, parties
in an armed conflict have a responsibility not to intentionally attack religious
buildings that are not being used for military purposes. They are prohibited
from seizing, destroying, or willfully damaging religious buildings or
institutions, and from theft, pillage, or vandalism directed against important
cultural property. Pillaging and deliberate attacks on religious sites that are
not military objectives are war crimes.